Majestic-12 distributed search engine project

As I stopped running Seti@home on my computers in the past few weeks (due to numerous crashes caused by the new enhanced seti@home workunits) I decided to revisit some websites of other distributed projects I had bookmarked.

I am now running the Majestic-12 search engine client. I found out about this project throught a The Guardian Newspaper article. This project actually distributes the indexing of the Majestic-12 search engine to volunteer participants who install the client. Unlike the Seti@home project which utilised the unused CPU power of the computers it was installed on, the Majestic-12 client downloads a list of URL’s to visit from the Majestic-12 servers and then utilises the internet conections of volunteers to index the websites on the list by visithing them. Once the list is run through the information is compressed and then sent back to the Majestic-12 servers. This is then added to the search engine index. Of course, I have just briefly summarised the client here, so visit the Majestic-12 website for all the in-depth detail.

Running the client is makes intensive demands on an internet connection and should not be run without reading up at the website. Failure to do so could result in slow connections if you wish to run the client and use the internet at the same time for other things such as surfing the net. If you are on a capped internet connection this client may use up your capacity very quickly so be warned. I myself am on a capped service and will only use the client towards the end of the month, as my caps reset on the 1st of every month. I am also planning to only run the service at night after this month, so as to keep my ISP happy (they normally are!).

Post navigation

Welcome to my personal website, which I use to express my opinions and views; to share my hobbies and experience. My interests include current affairs, politics, astronomy, technology, web authoring and the world of science fiction. I enjoy listening to music, talk on the radio, reading, going to the cinema, playing Nintendo and going for walks. Thanks for visiting.